While the models of expected returns are evolving, they still do not recognise the role of expressive and emotional characteristics. In this guest editorial in the Financial Analysts Journal, Meir Statman, Glenn Klimek Professor of Finance at Santa Clara University, California, proposes including characteristics such as affect, social responsibility, status and patriotism in models of expected returns .
Matteo Dante Perruccio and Mark Barker, chief executive and co-chief investment officer of Hermes BPK, the boutique fund of funds majority-owned by Hermes Fund Managers in turn owned by the BT Pension Scheme, speak to Amanda White about the benefits of focusing on investment management, and not asset gathering, in the hedge fund game and why alternative fee structures can work.
CalPERS’ remaining board meetings for the year, in May, July and September, will be open to the public as the fund deliberates a full asset-liability assessment, culminating in a potential change to the benchmark rate of return in December.
The Netherlands, an innovator in pension investment management, is leading a renaissance into government bonds at the expense of corporate bonds, as other European countries further reduce their domestic equities allocation, according to Mercer Investment Consulting’s 2010 European asset allocation survey.
A strategic shift into equities during 2009 and the completion of a multi-year strategy to bring all assets in house, has resulted in the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) returning 15.18 per cent return for 2009, positioning it as one of very few pension funds around the globe to be fully funded.
A committed ‘return seeker’, Sweden’s Andra AP Fonden (AP2) exploited the repricing of risk during the financial crisis by investing decisively in convertible bonds and credit, says Tomas Franzen, chief investment strategist at the SEK204.3 billion ($28.5 billion) fund. Now it is looking at real assets and emerging Asia to further diversify its sources of return. Simon Mumme reports.